Doing More with Less

That’s clearly the lean philosophy, but how can you really optimize things such that you are actually doing more with less?

First of all, cut all the fat! Anything that doesn’t really contribute to a better business, stop doing it and stop financing it because those are wasted efforts.

Second, do more of what you’re good at. Look at your KPIs and see what’s moving the needle the most, and double down on that! When you’re doing more of what’s effective and less of what’s not, you are increasing your productivity by quite a lot.

Third, hire more help! This seems counter to what you should be doing, but logically it makes a lot of sense! How? because you will hire people who can help you do the smaller things that provide little returns while you focus on the things that produce the MOST returns. That way, you are fully optimized.

How else can you do more with less? Of course, you can hire on equity or find unpaid interns, but those are less likely ways to do something good for your business.

In our men’s dress shirts startup, we practice all three ways of doing more with less so that we can be most efficient so our business is super lean, but super agile at the same time.